Gabriel Fauré : Dolly Suite (Piano Duet) - Berceuse (Lullaby) sheet music

The Dolly Suite Op.56 was composed by the French composer Gabriel Fauré. It was named after the daughter of a friend whose nickname was "Dolly", and as you might imagine the music and movement titles are suitably child-friendly. The original version of this suite is for Piano Duet in the form of 1 piano 4 hands, which means that the players sit side by side at the same piano. The full suite has 6 movements as follows: no.1 Berceuse, no.2 Mi-a-ou, no.3 Le jardin de Dolly, no.4 Kitty-Valse, no.5 Tendresse, no.6 Le pas Espagnol, and it is the first movement which we present here called "Berceuse" meaning Lullaby. (This movement was also used as the theme for the Radio Series "Listen with Mother".) The "Piano 1 part" is a little bit easier than the "Piano 2 part" so one option is for the teacher to play the Piano 2 accompaniment, and the pupil to play the Piano 1 main melody. Having said that, the music is certainly not for beginners and the pupil will need some experience to play the Piano 1 part.

Since it is a duet the parts have been formatted with the page-breaks at the same bar, so you can put the pages from the Piano 2 Part on the left and the pages from the Piano 1 Part on the right. You can also download the Piano Duet Score for printing. See below for midi & mp3 files of the full movement, but here is an mp3 file of Piano 2 only to help you practice the "Piano 1" part. Remember that Piano 2 plays 2 bars of accompaniment before Piano 1 starts.

Although the original work is for Piano Duet, the music lends itself to other arrangements and on mfiles we have the following versions: Dolly: Berceuse - for oboe or flute and piano (with alternative parts for clarinet or trumpet, french horn, violin, viola, alto sax, bassoon or cello), and Dolly: Berceuse - for piano solo.